Grant Stanton
History Josiah Syn was born in England of the 18th century. The son of a country squire who was murdered by soldiers in the service of king George III. Which is why at a young age Joisah took to banditry to regain the family’s fortune. Which were lost to heavy taxes. To disguise his identity he assumed the fearsome guise of a living scarecrow. Masked and wielding the terror of a demon while brandishing a pair of deadly flintlocks. After a brief but successful career as a highwayman, he turned to priracy and eventually amassed enough wealth to retire to the new world. Where he took up a new life as a gentleman of leisure. To sustain his wealth he took up smuggling to ferry goods past British tarrifs. And in order to protect his network he founded a group known as the straw men. Local farmers and merchants who sympathized with his views on English management of the colonies. Naturally when the revolution occurred he was quick to join the rebel cause and became invaluable in supplying guns and powder to General Washington’s forces. During this time a gradual transformation came over Josiah as idealism slowly came to supplant his roguish desire for wealth, and he transformed into a genuine patriot. One determined to see the british expelled. Even at the risk of himself and the fortune he had amassed. Always a showman who specialized in stage illusions and psychological manipulation. He started to take a genuine interest in the occult under the influence of an African slave who had been a practitioner of voodoo in her native Jamaica. In an act of reckless desperation, in the dire year of 1777, he made a pact with a demon god. Whom he mistook to be Satan, in order to gain the powers that he would need to become a champion for justice Though it may seem strange in modern light that a man would forge a pact with the devil in order to combat evil. But Josiah was very determined to right the wrongs and balance out the social injustice of his day. So the Straw man became a figure of both terror and admiration, striking a blow against tyranny then vanishing into the night with the coming of dawn back into the harmless shell that was Josiah Syn harmless merchant who outwardly abstained from involvement in worldly struggles. But something happened later on in his career after the American victory over the British, Josiah and his straw men took to routing out British loyalists, sometimes savagely visiting retribution on those whose only crime was in remaining loyal to their original king and country. The details are somewhat blurry, but it seems that a bloody incident involving his oldest daughter shocked Josiah into seeing his actions in a different light, and at once he repented his excesses and tried to abandon his straw man identity and reneges on his demonic pact altogether according to legend at this point... the devil buying the professed conversion. And so it was that Josiah was cursed a curse that would live on in his descendants. Even after his death in 1798 his legacy would live on. for his Jamaican servant cast a spell upon his soul that would insure that his mission would continue the pact essentially demanded that Josiah deliver the souls of a thousand truly evil men in exchange for his freedom from hell and damnation... but the catch of it was that he needed a body and not just any host would do. He needed a heir either of the blood or aborted and the union had to be entirely voluntary. From one generation to the next a new Josiah Syn would step forth from the shadows. A lone figure driven by vengence and need. Seeking eventual resolution of his ages old quest by hounding the gulty and delivering justice to the needy. Always accompanied by his loyal band of straw men. He would strike from the shadows and rain down terror and hellfire upon those who prey upon the weak and helpless whether of the blood or not, the straw man would live on as a legendary figure for both terror and justice. A fearsome creature of night who would prey upon the guilty and corrupt. And who through his invisible army the straw menwould dominate the underworld in the Boston area. Seeking justice in the name of his dark master. Gallery straw man2.JPG Straw man3.JPG straw manSirens1147.JPG straw manSirens1155.JPG straw men.JPG Category:The Centurians Category:Centurian Blues